Joe Philbin sticking to the status quo

Remember last year when the Dolphins started the season on a seven-game losing skid? Then coach Tony Sparano changed things. He changed the practice schedule, the meeting schedule. He poked and prodded with changes to try to turn the thing around.

Ultimately, the Dolphins did recover somewhat and won six of their final nine games. No, it wasn't a grand fix, but it changed the direction of things.

Well, the Dolphins are mired in a three-game losing skid and need desperately to change the direction of things again.

But new coach Joe Philbin has a different approach than his predecessor. He's not changing things. He's sticking to his guns. He believes in the approach he and his staff have taken and, darn it, that's going to remain the approach.

"Again, we hope we have a process in place of getting these guys ready to play the game," Philbin said Tuesday. "Now, whether it's the right process or not, that's certainly open for debate. But we kind of believe in certain things in terms of preparing players to play in an NFL game -- be it things they do in the classroom, the things they do in the weight room, the things they do on the practice field, they type of meeting structure we have.

That doesn't mean Philbin is feeling confident or great about the results the Dolphins are getting lately.

"I haven't slept as well as I'd like to be sleeping No question about it," he said. "But at the same time you have to have a faith and belief in something and we're going to stick to this process we have in place and this plan we have in place to help these guys reach their potential. That's what we're doing.

"As we said, there's lot of football left to be played and, most importantly, we're excited about this opportunity against Seattle."

And that opportunity will help determine whether staying the course alters the season's course.